Apostle
by Winged Kon
Summary: The WORLD has been terminated due to the events of R:2 caused by a certain group of players. After 30 years of technological advances, the game of APOSTLE has been created as a successor of the WORLD R:2. Now follow the story of Isamu, a newbie.


**: Hey guys, I missed you guys and I'm so incredibly sorry I haven't been posting for year. Stuff happened with my laptop and until the laptop is fixed, I can't continue Uzumaki Hidden in the Mist. But in the meantime, for all you .Hack lovers, I've made this so hope you enjoy**

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN any of the .hack series; this is a fanfiction and nothing more**

Chapter 1: Welcome to Apostle

Isamu felt his naked body floating gently in an empty void of space, as he floated holding his knees with his arms; his mind nearly. His body sent out a command to adjust his body to free himself from this strange exotic spell that kept his body bounded, but his body wouldn't obey; it felt content in this position, as though he was an unborn child.

All he could do was float, he wanted to observe where exactly he was but the same force that kept his body bound, was working the same mechanics on his eyelids. He couldn't tell how long he's been in this state, but it felt like an eternity of floating.

Suddenly, he began to hear a near mute chant resonate around his surroundings. At first he could barely hear the voices, but it steadily increased its volume until it was heard:

"Welcome home" the voice repeated clearly, after several attempts. The voice sounded cryptic and mechanic, as though it was computer generated. But, the alien voice brought Isamu comfort to him as it spoke.

"Home" Isamu whispered to himself, unintentionally giving his thoughts a voice. A minuscule amount of light ignited on Isamu's chest. The light was an extremely bright colored blue, it felt warm on the young man; as though a ray of sunlight radiated inside his heart. The light slowly began to grow in size, at first the size of a candle light then to an orb of pure light that was approximately the size of a crystal ball. It soon began to travel across his chest rather quickly, the light dispersed into many lines over his body. The lines were ragged and more of a zigzag formation as they soon began to streak across his body.

Isamu body slightly twitched at the moving lines, there was a tingling sensation as the lines finally covered his whole body in a cocoon of light. The whole time the faceless chants rose in volume, until the moment Takeo's body was wrapped tightly in a veil of sky blue light.

"Welcome to Apostle" the voice boomed, the light that lightly constricted itself to Isamu's skin rose as it to incredible bright levels. Isamu attempted to shut his eyes as tightly as he can to protect his eyes sight from the light, but to no avail the light was so bright it penetrated the make shift shield his body gave to his eyes. The empty void soon blossomed with the same color light as the light that had enwrapped Isamu in.

"May your path be as bright as the stars itself" the voice said before it too was force to yield to the intense super nova light like that had radiated in the room. That was all that Isamu could recall…

_Scene Change_:

Isamu creaked his eyes open; his eyelids creaked and whined in protest still afraid of being punished by the intense blue light that it had experienced a little while ago. Finally after a forceful fight, his eyes were fully opened and found himself looking at a blank white wall. Where am I? He asked mentally as he leisurely rotated his head at a 90 degree angle to his left to observe his surroundings, due to the fact that his right side was to a wall.

The room he was contained in was an extremely small bedroom. Although the roof wasn't as short as the room suggested it should, it was just the area of the room was extremely minuscule. Isamu concluded to himself that he was indeed lying on a bed that was oddly his perfect size without any covers draped over his body. Straight ahead to his left was a mirror that looked to be about 10 ft. tall.

Curiosity enveloped Isamu and soon pulled the young man towards the mirror, as he walked he noticed the floor was made of pearly white tiles he noticed that the earthly stones were bone chilling cold. It made his toes slightly curl towards the balls of his feet. Isamu approached the uncommonly polished mirror, and noticed that he was in someone else's body. The young man in the mirror has moderately long shaggy iron colored hair that halted at the mid-section of his neck. Isamu also seemed to have rather deeply tanned skin; he leaned over towards the mirror to touch the manufactured reflection of his face. His eyes were slightly slanted downward than the average human.

Isamu traced the reflection of his face on the mirror with his hand until his rich brown skin touched the reflection of his eyes. They were azure blue; it was a slightly darker color of the mysterious light that had covered his body not too long ago. He also noticed that he was no longer in the nude but garbed in a freshly ironed blank t-shirt that had neatly ironed pants to match his top. His clothing matched the coloring of this new room he was in. Just as he was about to ask this mysterious young man where he was he realized that this was him.

Then it came to Isamu, That's right, this is the character I wanted to be in that game _Apostle_ Isamu thought. He remembered what that strange omniscient voice had recalled: "Welcome to Apostle." So this is _Apostle_, Isamu reached towards his head and searched around the circumference of his cranium.

He remembered opening the box that came with a case that was called _Apostle_. With the box was also this android-like headband that has embedded on it several microscopic switches and a tiny metal plate. The box also came with a simple set of directions that said "Step 1: Insert disc entitled _Apostle_ into PC. Step 2: Place RS-3412 headband around head. Step 3: Rest…" Isamu remembered abiding all the rules that the instructions had said, and soon found out that he was in this weird world.

Isamu turned his head towards the door if this is a video game, then that door has to lead me somewhere. It's better than staying here all day, Isamu resolved mentally. And walked towards the door, his feet pattering slowly on the white tiled floor was he walked. When he reached the door, he turned the handle slowly and creaked opened the door. The white door smoothly opened and was as quiet as a church mouse as it opened.

Isamu saw a blank hallway that was the same color as the room he had left behind. He closed the door behind him and began walking down the hallway. As he walked down the empty seemingly endless hallway, he heard his bare, naked feet patter on the pearl colored tiles on the floor. Isamu whistled to himself as he began to admire the graphics of Apostle, for a videogame, these graphics are top notch. I mean I can actually feel everything he thought.

Suddenly, a large pillar of white light was shot down from the never ending ceiling that hung above him. The beam struck the floor just barely an inch from his noise, Isamu jumped in start and staggered away from the ray. As he began staggering, the young man lost his center balance and tumbled on the floor landing square on his back. The sun pillar soon condensed itself into a slightly smaller ray of light. The ray began to slowly take the shape of a human.

Isamu stood up slightly and began to inspect what had just happened, it was then that he realized that he was now at the feet of a woman made out of pure light. The woman had short hair that matched the pasty color of her skin, but seemed to lack pupils. She was rather small and wore a simple white sun dress. Is that a hologram? He asked himself.

The woman wore a small smile on her face "Welcome adventurer, you have adopted the name 'Isamu as your character. Is that correct?" she asked with an obvious robotic voice that was slightly feminine.

Isamu blinked twice and gingerly nodded his head yes, that was correct. Before he had fallen asleep in the real world he had already, in pure anticipation, imagined his character and would name him "Isamu". And it seemed that the game dug in his mind and copied his character onto Apostle.

The woman also nodded her head in confirmation "Understood. As a newcomer of this world, you must take up a class as you own." she explained "There are a total of five classes you are permitted to pick." The hologram clapped her hands, and a single high pitch ring pierced all ears in the hall. Isamu grunted at the slight discomfort at the sound of the clap. Five tiny identical pillars of light erupted from the ground, and in a flash the pillars took the shape of five model-sized weapons that were each different. The weapons all aligned themselves floating a couple of inches from the artificial woman's chest. Each weapon's tip was pointed to the ground.

On the far left of the set was a freshly polished dagger with that had a cobalt black ribbon tied to the handle. Next to it was a single arrow that looked razor sharp. In the middle of the arrow, a black wand was floating gently but firmly in place. On its right was a war hammer, its block of solid steely was polished thoroughly and had a crimson ribbed tied to its grip. Finally, at the end was a katana that looked ready for combat and the hilt of it was an azure blue color.

They artificial woman reached for her left hand and first place it near the hilt of the dagger. "This weapon represents the Acrobat class, they are the rulers of speed" she explained as her hand stood idly by. Next she moved over to the next weapon to the right "This tool represents the Marksman; they are the only class whose shots are pure."

The whole time, Isamu nodded and tried ingesting as much information as the young woman was giving; somehow he knew that those two weapons weren't going to be his class that he would proudly take up as his identity; although the dagger of the Acrobat came close to his mysterious expectations. The hologram place her hand over the wand "This single branch symbolizes the Spell Weavers, a class which is the very center of all magical manipulation in Apostle" she continued. Again, the idea of becoming a magic user was pushed out of his mind.

She then proceeded to the oddly simple design of the war hammer "This instrument stands for the mighty Strikers, whose arms hold the world of Apostle in a steady position" she said. Isamu placed his right hand on his chin to consider the possibility, having power would be a magnificent thing to be known for, but the same instinct that rejected the other 3 classes once again peered its judgmental head into his eyes and caused the young man to shake his head in denial.

The hologram blinked twice in manufactured puzzlement, but then a small smirked stroke across her face. Quickly, her hand moved towards the floating katana "Let your eyes fall upon the weapon of the Swordsmen, whose blade has been raised to protect the chambers of their own personal ambitions" she exclaimed finally.

Suddenly, Isamu felt his body's energy come together to form one synchronized pulse of excitement. He knew that this class would be his identity. The young man extended his left arm towards the katana. The hologram smiled in confirmation and brought her right hand to meet her left in a clapping motion. All the weapons transfigured into several sapphire orbs of light, and swiftly smashed into each other in an explosion of light. Isamu's winced in pain from the sudden flash of light of the explosion, it caused a minor flash of pain to flourish in his eyes.

_Damn_ Isamu cursed mentally as he rubbed the dancing spots away from his vision. But he found himself unable to rub his eyes with his right hand as it was now holding an object in its grasp. Isamu, still blinded from the flash, looked over to his right hand to find a wooden sword in his hand. The wooden sword was freshly glossed to give the sword a smooth silky feel to it. The sword had a square cross guard. The flat side of the blade was streaked with long swirls painted on to the blade.

Isamu raised the wooden sword closer to his face to marvel at the beauty of his new weapon, there was something deep inside of him assuring that the sword belonged to him. "You have been accepted into the Swordsmen class, but you are to commence your journey by first wielding the beginner weapon of the Swordsmen: the Bokken." The hologram woman instructed. The woman pointed to Isamu's left pocket "In there, you will find 6,000 ren. That amount of ren should be sufficient in the task of buying more adequate clothing, and possibly a stronger weapon."

Isamu felt a shift of transformation in his sword as it materialized, out of thin air, a black sheath which housed his wooden sword in a protective shell. Isamu looked down at it and stood in awe at the transformation, he was snapped out of his trance by a sudden thought. "Wait this hallway just goes on forever, how am I going to go somewhere?" the new swordsman questioned.

The manufactured woman looked at the left wall of the hallway and raised both hands to the wall, her palms flat against the imaginary wall that stood between her and the hallway wall. The hologram suddenly began to emit a ghostly white aura from her body, it started from her stomach. From there it enveloped her body like a forest fire. As the aura enveloped the woman, the woman's eyes shone with the intensity of two suns. Finally when it looked as though the hologram's eyes were on the verge of entering supernova, the woman shot all the white energy gathered from her body through her arms and eyes in three separate beams of white light. When said beams made contact with the white wall, the wall began to slowly eradicate away from the strength of the lasers.

Isamu watched in fascination as this occurred, what's it doing? He asked himself. The beams of white energy disappeared in a flash after what felt like 10 minutes of destruction.

Isamu blinked a couple of times at the sudden appearance of sunlight that was shining through the perfect half circle that the hologram had created through her beams of energy. The swordsman turned his attention to the hologram, which looked back at him with a blank expression. "By going through this door, you will be able to enter the town of Galsyos. Welcome to Apostle." She finally said and in a flash of white energy she submerged into the white floors of the hallway.

Isamu watched the hologram leave, it was weird to see such a helpful hologram leave before your eyes but there wasn't anything he could do. The young man looked at the doorway. Looks like its Galsyos or bust, the swordsman thought to himself. He quickly grabbed the cord that was attached to the sheath of his sword, and wore the sword across his back from his upper right shoulder to his left side of his thigh. "Well let's see where this leads" he said when he finished fastening the cord on his shoulder.

The swordsman casually walked out of the newly made entry and into the sunlight with hands inside his pockets. Once his body was out of the hallway, the hole made in the hallway quickly reconstructed itself to his prime glory.

_Scene Change_:

Isamu checked his surroundings and felt his mouth slightly open up at his first sight of Galsyos. It was a stunning sight; the floor was laid out of cobblestone which was expertly cemented together in a beautiful fashion for the cobble stones ranged from a rich color of gray and teal. The buildings also varied from one another, some were only one story buildings, and others were huts. The roofs were all arched sharply with the groves of each point of the roof caving in downwards slightly. "Wow" he exclaimed "it's amazing."

The new swordsman turned back around and saw that he had just came out of a building that consisted of no windows what so ever. It was primarily painted with black and gold ink, and it also lacked a door. All that was there was a solid black wall that was gleaming against the ray of the sun. Isamu slowly walked in reverse to get a better view of the building he had just exited. From a farther point of view, the building looked like a smaller version of a feudal era Japanese mansion. Near the base of the roof was a yellow sign that was painted in black ink House of Beginnings.

"Hey watch it!" a passerby exclaimed as he bumped into Isamu while walking towards a building nearby House of Beginnings.

Isamu turned around to quickly face the person he bumped into and apologized for his unawareness. It was then that the young swordsman noticed that the town of Galsyos was heavily populated by other players in the game. He witnessed a mass of other players from the top of the small incline that held the House of Beginnings in place. Isamu walked down the small cobble road away from the building he exited and entered the sea of Apostle players, without any real destination in mind.

As he walked through the large amount of players, he observed all of the people and mysteriously could tell which class they were by just a glance. He looked to his left and saw near a fountain, of two crossing tridents shooting streams of water upward from the tips of the weapons. Standing near the fountain was a group consisting of 3 players. One was a marksman; the other two were both strikers. It's weird, I didn't even speak to them, and yet I knew all their classes by heart, Isamu pondered.

A small chilling breeze snuck up upon the swordsman and struck quickly on him, surprising Isamu even though there wasn't a cloud in the sky for the breeze to have originated from. He briefly shivered as he walked and began rubbing his biceps with his hands crossing one another to do so. _Where could I find somewhere that sells clothes before I have to find my first mission in a hospital outfit_, Isamu questioned himself critically.

The gray haired swordsman stood on the edge of his toes to peer past the vast mob of players trudging through the streets of Galsyos to find some sort of clothing store. Isamu's eyes rested upon an exotically colored little store that was painted in a magnitude of bright colors. It all seemed to smoothly fit together in one place; the colors were painted in all shapes and sizes. The sign on the store said "The Curtain" That might work Isamu resolved as he walked diagonally upwards to the right to get to the store.

Isamu stepped into the store once he became close enough to the door by turning a knob on the door shaped as a metallic silver flower. The minute he entered the store, a small hand grabbed his arm and yanked him with an incredibly strong force inwards the store. Isamu skidded on the multicolored tile floor on his back and stopped after slamming his head on a large drawer that held a variety of shorts. The swordsman for a short time only seemed to have stars dancing in his vision. He quickly shook the stars from his vision by shaking his head quickly.

When he was done, he looked up and found himself face to face with short woman that looked to be just barely 5ft tall. She had on a green shirt on with a beige skirt on and white panty hoses that matched with black leather shoes to better protect the short woman's equally small feet. The woman also had her black hair in a ponytail with a flower scrunchie hold her hair that went to the midsection of her back, together. The woman's olive colored eyes glared at Isamu's blue eyes with, her face turning slightly red in anger.

"How dare you enter MY store, while wearing such an eye sore?" she screeched.

"Um, I was just w-walking in and-"Isamu stammered out as he slowly crawled farther against the drawer in nervousness.

"You thought you could just walk back, expecting to get away with insulting my store?" she continued her screaming while advancing on the newcomer.

"I didn't mean to!"

"Oh and now you're raising your voice at me? I'll teach you!" she screamed as she materialized a lime green war hammer from her right hand, whose head was decorated with flowers. The woman wrapped her left hand around the handle and with inhuman strength, raised the hammer above her head and swung the hammer down upon the newly appointed swordsman. Isamu leaped out of the way in an untrained, desperate dolphin dive to his left in order to avoid the lethal strike to his cranium. The blow from the hammer caused a mini explosion of broken tiles to appear the second the hammer made contact only to the floor.

The swordsman slid amongst the rainbow colored tiles, he attempted to grip on to the floor, but to no avail his fingers seemed to not be able to decelerate his slipping; thus causing Isamu to tumble over a clothing rack that held leathery armor in a multitude of different colors. The rookie player peeked his head out of the collection of armor and his eyes snapped open as he looked upon the elderly woman who had just nearly struck him. The freakishly strong woman snapped her neck towards the swordsman; a giant tick mark furiously pulsated on her right temple. Isamu's heart beat matched the tempo of the woman's tick mark.

The woman raised her hammer so the head of the hammer, a sharp metal circle colored as a yellow smiley face, at the newly appointed swordsman. "You are quick, I'll give you that" the woman said. She then squatted low enough so that her knees were floating just above the tile floor. In a quick instant, her legs snapped upright thus creating the momentum she needed to launch herself at her target. Her jump caused more tiles to burst off the floor. "But no one has escaped my hammer twice!" the pitch of her voice rose sharply at the last part of her sentence as she flew towards Isamu.

The woman soared through the air towards the swordsman, his heart beat rapidly as she approached her. Just as the woman's cobalt black hair, which carried a scent with a hint of a lemon, was just a foot away from his face he closed his eyes waiting for the blow to come. His whole body shook in fear, waiting for his fatal strike to come. What's going on? He thought. He pried one eye open to take a small peak at his surroundings; investigating why he hadn't been struck by the hammer.

What he saw surprised him, he opened his eyes to see a young man that was the exact copy of the assaulting woman wielding a giant battle axe with black metal. His hair, unlike his female copy, was cut short and sported a dark gray short sleeved shirt with black camouflaged pants. His arms were covered with a matching pair of black gauntlets. He wore tan, steeled-toed hunting boots on his small feet. His olive green eyes matched the feminine copy of himself, but instead of his eyes colored with pure fury, his eyes were like a serene forest.

The stranger stood mere inches away from Ismau's face. The swordsman noticed that part of his view was blocked because of the young man's small back. On the back of his gray shirt was the kanji for curtain. "Kuren!" he said to the angry woman "give it a break already!"

The woman called Kuren back peddled to distance herself from her exact look alike. She pointed her hammer again but this time towards her male replica "Brother! He dares to enter our store while wearing something that's probably from the dump!" She complained as her lime green hammer disappeared in a small explosion of green light. "That's the ultimate insult!"

"Geez calm down" the short man said as his own weapon disappeared in a small explosion of white light. "Just look at him." The man pointed at Isamu who was still in the rack of armor. Kuren approached him the newly, intimidated swordsman with a skeptical look on her face. When she was face to face with her twin, the male half lazily yielded to the right of her. She looked upon Isamu with a critical glare, her emerald eyes viciously clawing at the azure eyes of the new Apostle, who was squirming silently at the intensity of the small woman's glare.

Isamu felt a bead of sweat drop down his brow, as the woman's glare only increased as time passed. Minutes, which felt like hours, passed by and then Kuren leaned over so close to his face that their foreheads were just centimeters away from touching. Isamu slightly flinched, for he knew that any sudden movements would certainly return the fiery wrath of the woman that was in front of him. Don't move and you'll be fine. Don't move a muscle, he recited to himself repeatedly in his head.

Finally Kuren pulled back her head in a flash and stood upright, the short woman made a sudden grunt of annoyance. "Kai, you're trying to tell me that I almost killed this beginner?" She questioned while tapping her foot over and over again; the tapping resonating throughout the store.

"Yes sister" Kai sighed while leaning over on the rack of armor that Isamu had took shelter in.

The woman snapped her neck towards the newly appointed swordsman. She looked at the face of the swordsman; his nicely tanned olive face welcomed the short woman in a warm cave of beauty. The young man's shaggy iron colored mane providing shelter for the woman's eyes from being pulled into the deep abyss of the swordsman's blue eyes.

Kuren's cheeks slowly began to radiate in a pinkish glow, her face looked as though it was getting hot. Kai tapped his sisters shoulder "Sis, anyone home?" He asked. He proceeded with rapidly shaking his hand in front of his sister repeatedly.

Finally the short young woman grabbed the vibrating hand, floating in her face "I-i see that now!" She snapped at in annoyance. Kuren pushed down her clone's hand and began an angry trod to the back of the clothing store. Isamu allowed himself to let go of the compressed air he had sealed within himself at the moment.

"That was a close one" Isamu whispered in case the Kuren might have heard his comment.

Kai peeked his eye towards and chuckled softly to himself, "Here let me help you get out of that rack" Kai suggested to the new player as he extended his right arm towards Isamu. The silver haired player looked at it as though he doubt it was real until he finally grasped the out stretched hand. Once he had a respectful grip, Kai hoisted up the player from the ground until he was standing up right.

"Thanks" Isamu said as he lightly brushed anything off his pearly white clothing.

Kai smirked, "No prob. By the way, I'm Kai and the lovely woman you met a couple of seconds ago was my twin sister Kuren" the short male said to him. "Sorry you didn't get a proper welcome in our shop."

"It's okay. Oh, I'm Isamu-"Isamu began to say when he felt realization struck. "Wait, this is your shop?"

Kai chuckled again at what the new player had said and turned around so that the writing on the short player's back was in Isamu's eyesight once again. On his back he saw the kanji for curtain, but this time it was seen more clearly due to the fact that he no longer was restrained to the rack of clothing for his own safety. "This is our shop, The Curtain at your service!" Kai said.

"The curtain…" Isamu repeated to himself.

Kai turned back around so that he was facing his customer again. "If you're wondering about the name of the shop, we had a better name for the shop before Kuren tore it down" Kai explained, letting a sigh loose at the last part of his sentence.

Suddenly a black boot struck Kai against the left side of his face in a powerful impact, causing the male shop owner to collapse to the ground, his body only moved through slight twitches. Isamu looked in the direction of where the shoe originally came from to figure out who threw the shoe at Kai. His answer was soon given to him as he saw an angry Kuren storming down the aisles to reach her brother's laying form on the ground.

"The little bitch had it coming, arrogance!" Kuren screamed at her brother as she bent downwards so she had a better look at her twin brother.

In a flash, Kai jumped back on his feet to face his sister. The quickness of his hop alerted both Isamu and Kuren, "She was giving you a gift for helping her out on her first day in Apostle!" Kai retorted.

"She was rubbing it in my face! Talk about rude!"

"It was a gift!"

Kuren wagged her finger in the air as she let out a sigh. "Kai, I'm shocked that your older sister has to catch her older brother acting like such child. You mustn't let these little things interfere with your happiness." Kuren lectured while shaking her head in disappointment.

"Don't be such hypocrite!"

The argument began continued; it went back and forth; each side serving each other an insult waiting for the other side to retaliate. Isamu found this petty argument at first quite hilarious but then it dragged on to the point where he was gaining the suspension that he would never get to purchase a new attire for himself.

Finally Isamu had enough of the mindless argument he was witnessing and decided to speak up. "Hey you guys sell clothing right?" "Isamu peeped up. Both the twins looked at each other for a second, both shop keepers were glaring at each other face to face. The two strikers turned they're head at the same time towards the attention of their customer. Kuren slightly began to snicker, breaking the silence of the room; slowly the volume of her laughing gradually began to increase. "Are you joking? We're the only place that sells clothing, what the hell do you think?" she snickered.

Kuren pulled back up from glaring at her twin brother and walked over towards Isamu. Isamu froze in place wondering what she was going to do to him; the female striker stepped close to the new player and poked him on the chest. "No, wait! Don't tell me! You wasted all your money on some weapon that you can't even use yet, right?" she questioned crucially. "Honestly you're such a rookie!"

"I still have my money!" Isamu retorted, finally losing his patience with the shopkeeper. The two players glared at each other, both sides not giving an inch to the other in this contest of eyes.

Kai walked in between the two players to keep his sister from PKing a customer, "Isamu follow us if you want any clothing." Kai said.

Kuren looked at her brother and simply pointed her nose towards the ceiling as she began walking towards the middle of the store. Kai followed his sister towards the middle of the store. Isamu tailed behind the male shopkeeper. As Isamu walked, he began surveying all the clothes on the different clothing racks that was scattered throughout the store. They came in different sizes and colors; it was as though he was walking through a rainbow of clothing.

Finally, the group reached the middle of the clothing store. There seemed to be a rather large red curtain in the dead center of the store. The crimson curtain formed a tight mini circle that seemed to have a diameter of 20".

"This is the Dressing Bin; it's where rookie players get their first outfit of the game." Kai explained to Isamu while pointing at the large curtain. Isamu looked around the diameter of the curtain for anything out of the usual but there was anything abnormal about the curtain. Kuren began tapping her shoe lightly on the floor of the store. Finally the female player had enough of Isamu's inspection.

"Will you just get the hell in the damn curtain?" she yelled while a tick mark pulsed dangerously fast on her forehead.

"Fine I will" Isamu said while he briskly entered the large curtain to escape the short woman's wrath. Isamu looked around him to see that he was surrounded by the red velvet of the curtain, giving the sunlight that hit the fabric a scarlet glow. The swordsman looked directly in front of him to find a giant mirror in front of him that could have easily have been 11ft tall.

"What the hell is taking so long?" Isamu heard Kuren screech from beyond the curtain.

"I don't even know what to do!"

There was quiet from the other end of the curtain, then he heard Kai voice, "Isamu you have focus on an outfit that you would like to wear." The male shopkeeper explained. Isamu nodded his head in confirmation and began to focus on the outfit he wished to wear. His mind traced from the back of his mind to search for an outfit to wear but he couldn't think of anything.

_Damn it! What am I going to wear?_ Isamu said mentally after 5 minutes of focusing. The player then noticed a small magazine booklet that looked about the size of a manga book. Curiosity drove the player to open the small book; it was filled of clothing designs ranging from heavy, gallant armor of classes like strikers to the slender, soft material used to dress the spell weavers. Isamu began flipping through the book until he saw a design that intrigued him.

It was part of the swordsman edition, _I think I'll go with his one_; Isamu thought as he closed the book and began focusing on the clothing he saw on the magazine but with his own personal touches to the outfit. Suddenly a white light poured onto the new player Isamu felt warmness creep up upon his skin coughing him to jump slightly in alarm. Then the light began that cloaked his skin began to gain tangilibility in the form of clothing.

When the light died down, he felt as though he was wearing more weight on his body than usual. Isamu looked through the mirror and found that no longer was he wearing the hospital like attire; he was outfitted with a heavier cloth material.

The swordsman now wore long black pants that were baggier than usual pants, the pants folds led to his new cobalt black shoes that looked as though it was brand new. He had on a navy blue jacket made of regular cloth that didn't have any zipper or buttons what so ever. It also seemed to be lacking of a collar, as though it looked like an open long sleeved shirt. Underneath the jacket was a slight dark colored sapphire blue T-shirt.

Isamu turned around to see that his Bokken was no resting upon his back. Overall, Isamu liked this look a lot. Awesome, I look like an anime character Isamu exclaimed mentally while he patted himself on the back for imagining such an awesome outfit.

"Will you come out already?" Kuren screamed, pulling Isamu out of his thoughts.

Isamu blinked a couple of times and walked out of the large red curtain to face the shop keepers. Kuren was completely red face as she looked upon Isamu. The female striker heart paced rapidly skipping the beat several times; she then pointed her nose in the air to keep the two guys in the room to see her blushing. "I-it looks okay to me." She stumbled; it was all she could manage.

Kai looked at Isamu himself, "She's right, this fits you" the male striker commented while nodding his head in approval.

Isamu began scratching the back of his head nervously, "Thanks."

Kai out stretched his hand, "I'm sorry to do this to you but that custom outfit's going to cost you 6,000 ren." Kai said to Isamu.

"What?" Isamu exclaimed "But that's all my money, how am I going to buy a weapon now?"

"Custom outfits are extremely expensive, but you do want the cloths right?" Kai asked.

"Yea I do" Isamu mumbled as he searched through his pockets for the money that hologram had given him moments ago. He pulled out a single coin and examined it, it was a gold coin that was the size of a quarter but was as thick as two nickels. It had on an oversized italicized R on the coin with an opening where there was empty space of the R.

_So this is a ren_, Isamu thought as he pulled out the rest of the gold coins. He put all the coins in Kai's out stretched hand. "Yup, that's 6,000 ren. One coin is 1,000 ren in case you didn't know. Thanks for the business" Kai said.

"Thanks for the clothes, now all I need is to find something to do" Isamu replied.

"How about you check out Hiko Forest?" Kai suggested, "Its where many beginners level up, it's directly east from here."

"Right thanks!" Isamu said. The swordsman was about to turn to leave the store when he was stopped by a yell:

"Stop!"

Isamu turned around to the source of the noise to find that it was Kuren, whose head was facing him but her eyes faced anywhere but his direction.

"Why'd you stop me?" Isamu asked.

Kuren struggled to point her eyes at Isamu, when she did she noticed her face was getting red again. "You honestly believe I'm going to let you go off in Hiko Forest just for you to ruin those clothes?" She asked rhetorically.

Before Isamu had the chance to reply, a sphere of bright green light appeared in her left hand. When the sphere died down, it left the girl with a blade in her hand.

She tossed the blade to Isamu quickly and soon stormed off to another part of the store. "Now get the hell out of here!" She yelled.

"Fine, I will!" Isamu snorted as he walked out of the store holding the blade in his hand.

Kuren heard the bell of the store ring telling her that the swordsman that had made her experience this strange feeling goes away. "Finally he's gone" she sighed allowing the redness in her face to die down.

"Aww isn't that sweet, my older sis had a thing for a rookie" she heard her brother Kai jeer.

Kai began laughing hard at her but cut him off by sending a chair at him, "What the hell are you talking about? I gave him that old thing because I didn't need that useless weapon for my class and it would have gotten him out quicker!" She barked at her brother.

Kai picked himself off the ground, dusting off the dirt that had plastered him "Whatever you say sis" he laughed earning another chair to be sent at him.

_Scene Change_:

Isamu stood out the Curtain's door examining the new weapon that he was given. The sheath was cobalt black with two silver streaks intersecting to form an X on the sheath, the streaks of silver stopped at the bottom of the sheath where the sheath had a silver plate covering it. From the width of the blade it was larger than a katana but the size was as long as a katana. The hilt had a guard that reminded him of the large swords he would see while reading manga.

Isamu pulled the sword out from its scrap board to look at it, the tip of the blade was sharp and was arched deeply but was a one sided blade. In the middle of the sword was a small diamond embedded in the sword. _Cool, this thing is amazing! Why would Kuren give this to me?_ Isamu pondered while he twisted the weapon in his hand. Doesn't matter its mine now! Isamu placed the sword back in its sheath.

Isamu wondered where he would put his new weapon; he couldn't put it on his back that's where his bokken was. It was then that he noticed that he no longer felt the weight of the bokken on his back. Isamu wondered if he dropped the wooden blade while dodging the onslaught of blows that he was being given to by Kuren.

_Doesn't matter to me! I have an actual sword now!_ Isamu concluded, he proceeded with placing the sword on his back directly on top of the cord that held his bokken in place.

"Alright! Let's get to Hiko Forest!" Isamu proclaimed as he walked east from the store. As he walked through the town, he looked at the different shops he passed. He saw what he expected to be a magic book store, there were spell weavers walking in the store one after the other.

Isamu also saw a large muscular striker working in his workshop on a weapon that looked to be at the very least 6 feet tall. Isamu walked away amazed at the size of the weapon wondering who could even wield such a gigantic weapon. Finally after an hour of walking through, Isamu realized that his sightseeing was over when he reached the outskirts of Galsyos. There weren't many shops around, but he saw a giant sign that said Hiko Forest. The sign was what was between him and a dirt road that was only 2 feet long before it was engulfed by an untamed forest

_This is it, Hiko Forest_, Isamu said mentally. Just as he was about to take a step past the sign when he felt himself get knocked off his feet. Isamu fell on the dirt floor with his stomach.

The swordsman got up quickly to see that he was in front of 2 players. One was a round, rather fat striker that had on brown colored plate armor. He had a scythe on his back that was much too big for him. Isamu also noticed that the striker had a pair pig ears sprouted from his head.

The second player, unlike the other, was a spell weaver who was rather tall and looked to be 7 feet tall. He had extremely pale skin and was skinnier than usual. He had on white robes that was too big for him and had black belt around his waist with a purple wand on the belt. The spell weaver had long uncut hair that covered his eyes completely.

"Move it rookie!" The striker barked.

"What was that for? I was about to go anyway" Isamu retorted.

"Did you say something greenhorn?" The striker bellowed while he reached for his scythe. Isamu mirrored the striker, ready to attempt to defend himself if it was needed.

Before any blades clashed, a small black player who was an acrobat walked between the two. His hair was cut short, he had on a short sleeved hoody that was camouflaged forest style. The player also wore beige shorts that reached middle shin and wore brown sneakers. He had goggles around his neck and what seemed to be bandages wrapped around his arms that went to his elbow. On each wrist was a band that had small medals on each, they each had the etched symbol of a scale on it.

"Dosk, are you trying to start a fight again?" He asked critically while he looked that striker straight in the eye.

The player named Dosk let his hand fall back to his side, "No, Von sir!" He answered back.

The short player named Von looked at the skinny spell weaver "And you Loz, why didn't you stop him?" Von continued.

"Sorry sir" Loz replied simply.

Von turned his attention towards Isamu. The new player flinched at first thinking it was his turn to get yelled at. But was surprised when the short black player raised his short right arm in a high five motion and simply said:

"Yo!"

Isamu looked at the hand and gingerly clapped his hand on his, "Hey."

"Sorry about that, the name's Von. My subordinates know better than to harass a new player like that." Von said. Isamu nod his head and looked at the two other players that were behind the shortest player in the group. He saw how Dosk snarled at him; but couldn't make out Loz's expression due to the fact that his hair was covering up his face.

"Subordinates?" Isamu asked Von.

The acrobat lightly began chuckling to himself, and stuck his thumb at his chest, "I Von and my subordinates, Loz and Dosk, work for SCALE!" He answered boastfully.

Isamu didn't say anything, he was trying to figure what exactly SCALE was.

"Don't tell me you haven't heard of us?" Von asked depressed allowing his shoulders to drop low. His sadness was confirmed by the swordsman shaking his head.

Von sighed to himself "SCALE works day and night to work to put away all PKers. In a way, I guess we're cops" Von said before laughing at the last part of his sentence.

"By the way, what are you doing here anyway...?" Von began to say before not realizing that he didn't know the swordsman's name.

"My name's Isamu, and I'm about to go in Hiko Forest" Isamu explained. "This'll be my first area to go in to."

"Oh, really?" Von said, suddenly Von snapped his fingers loudly "I got an awesome idea, we can guide you around Hiko Forest!"

Dosk immediately slammed his heavy iron clad foot on the ground "No! I refuse to give a green horn a tour, he has legs maybe he should get off his ass and walk there himself." Dosk roared in anger.

Von glared at Dosk with such a killing intent the pig man hybrid froze in fear. His face coated in beads of sweat. Von smiled at him "That's what I thought" the acrobat said simply. He turned around towards the forest. "Come now, off to Hiko Forest!"

"You guys don't really have to; I think I'll be fine by myself." Isamu said.

"Will you relax? I'm doing this because I want to, now come on." Von replied.

Loz let out a screeching sound from his mouth that was intended to sound like a sigh. "Sir, I thought we were going to make our report back at headquarters." Loz croaked.

"Don't worry about Loz, we'll be back in no ti-" he began to say before he suddenly stopped himself. He stood in one place for a minute without blinking.

Isamu waved his hand in front of the acrobat's face. "Hey, you all right?" He asked.

The short player jumped in mid air and howled with glee "Whoo! They're here!" Von laughed. "My special push daggers are here!"

"But then I can't take you Hiko Forest" Von continued after falling back to the ground, now depressed.

Dosk let out a loose yawn "Oh no, now we can't take Isman to Hiko Forest. Damn it all!" The striker said his voice drowned in sarcasm.

Von smirked at Dosk "You two aren't going anywhere, I might not be able to go but you still can." Von said coolly.

"But that's not f-" he began saying before he noticed that his leader was nowhere to be found, there was a piece of paper on the ground where he stood.

Dosk picked it up and read what it said, _Gone to post office to pick up daggers, be back soon_. The fat striker clutched the note with his hand, his fist shaking while he was seething with anger. "Damn him!" He whispered harshly. Isamu watched the striker fuming in anger, just before he was about to say how it wasn't necessary to guide him. But he was interrupted by a giant pudgy gauntlet grabbing his throat. Isamu gawked at the sudden pressure that was going into his wind pipe. "Listen you little shit, you're going to go in the forest and not say a word you got that?" He whispered harshly.

Isamu gingerly nodded his head in confirmation. When he was satisfied, the fat member of SCALE released his grasp on the new player. "Walk noob!" he growled.

Isamu rubbed his throat and swore under his breath before he walked into Hiko Forest, Dosk and Loz of SCALE followed shortly behind.

_Scene Change_:

Hiko Forest glistened with the sunlight of Apostle. Creatures lightly emitted sounds, each sound giving their equal share of the resonance of the forest. Along with the noises of the forest was the clanking of armor and the stamping of feet on the forest floor. Isamu walked in the forest with the two players for about an hour now. His feet ached from the walking, and Dosk would insult him about everything about him. But that wasn't those weren't reason why he was furious, although they each played a part of this anger.

He was annoyed because every time he wanted to face off against a creature in the forest; would it be a bear, wolf, or a goblin, Dosk would always say:

"Don't you worry; you'll be fighting soon enough." Dosk said before laughing harshly.

Finally Isamu had enough of the endless walking in the forest. The swordsman stopped where he was walking and turned to face his escorts. "When the hell am I going to fight?" Isamu finally asked. "All we've been doing is walk!"

Isamu suddenly heard laughing coming from the two. He looked at Dosk but realized the laugh was from him. Instead it was coming from Loz; the spell weaver laughing was drowned with insanity.

"There's no need to rush your PKing" Loz simply said.

Isamu's eyes snapped open in shock, "My wha-" he began saying before he was cut short by the whirling of metal and its following course into the skin. Isamu looked down to find Dosk bending over right in front of him holding a black scythe whose head was constantly whirling. Dosk's face had droplets of blood on it "See ya kid." He laughed as he licked the blood on his face.

Isamu looked at his body to find that he had been cut from his left should to his hip. Isamu yelled in pain as his body crumbled to the forest floor. His blood coated the forest floor he was laid on.

Isamu's vision became so blurry he could barely see the feet of his attackers. The new player inclined his head upwards to get a better look at them, his body aching the whole time as he tried this.

Dosk laughed at Isamu as the striker adjusted his body "Looks like you're still alive, I'm shocked." He said with a sneer. Dosk pointed the whirling scythe at Isamu's head, "Let's see if we can fix that."

Everything went in slow motion as he saw Dosk lunge at him with his scythe. This can't be it, I just started. I'm not dying now! He felt pulsing coming from his blade, What's going on? Then it seemed the tempo of reality increased dramatically. The next moment he knew, Isamu saw himself standing on his feet grasping onto his blade with his right hand. He felt extremely light; it was as though if he moved carelessly he would risk destroying something. Dosk was holding his right side, which was now bleeding and spilling onto the forest. The striker's scythe was on the floor, cut in half.

Isamu looked around, Dosk's face was twisted sourly in disbelief even Loz look quite astonished. Did I do this?

Loz looked at the new player in disgust, the player named Isamu was now glowing with a blue aura around his body and he didn't even know it. The aura crackled wildly as Isamu turned to face Loz. The swordsman lunged at him with his sword at blinding speed for a beginning player. Isamu knew he could do this; all he needed was to get close enough.

Before his blade made contact with the spell weaver, Isamu was sent flying right against a large oak tree. The swordsman coughed out blood as his back made contact with the tree. His blade spun in the air rapidly before it sunk into the soft ground of the forest.

"I can't move" Isamu grunted and felt the pain of the previous slash return.

Isamu saw Loz approach the tree he was pinned down to while pointing his blue wand at him, "Silly swordsman, you believed just because you had unlocked the hidden power of the swordsman you won the battle?" He asked quietly "You are mistaken."

Dosk wiped off the blood that was on his face, "The little shit stabbed me!" He roared, in a bright hot flash of red, a giant cleaver appeared in the striker's hand.

"You should be a shamed at yourself to be nearly taken down by a rookie" Loz said.

"Oh shut the hell up already" Dosk retorted. The striker leaped in the air at Isamu and brought the large cleaver up to his head aiming at the swordsman's neck. "I told you already it was a lucky shot!"

**9426: I'm so evil, a cliff hanger right after not seeing you guys for a year. Will Isamu survive his first encounter in the strange game of Apostle? Find out in the next chapter!**

**Please review! **


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